I. Field of the Invention.
The present invention relates generally to the field of mini fishing vessels which can be maneuvered, operated and controlled remotely through radio signals.
II. Description of the Prior Art.
It has long been a desire of fishermen to send out a little fishing tool under their remote control to catch fish in any place and at any time where fish were feeding without them getting away. It has been tried before but not with the self-catching fishing tackle, remote reset, remote reel control, remote directional propulsion and related features of this invention.
An example of a different remote-control fishing vessel is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,161,077 granted to Ciaccio et al. The Ciaccio et al patent taught a toy marine vessel that doubled as a remote-control fishing vessel. An angler held a reel portion of fishing tackle while the toy marine vessel carried a hook portion of the line to where fish were to be caught in a body of water. Then the hook portion of line held at the vessel would be released in desired timing with biting of bait on a hook, leaving the angler to manipulate the line thereafter for drawing in a fish on a hook end of the line. It was, in effect, a means for casting a line in a desired position on a body of water with the toy marine vessel being employed as a mobile casting tool.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,793,761 granted to Bonham disclosed a battery-powered fishing vessel that was remotely steered by a line held by an operator and connected to the vessel. A tug or a jerk of the line was used to steer the vessel in accordance with design of an indexed steering mechanism on the vessel. Different from this invention, the Bonham device had no autohook fishing pole and was steerable by a rudder instead of by variable rotation of a water screw on each side of the vessel. A variety of other motorized fishing aids are known but are further yet different from this invention.